Altered Blocks

Hi, Everyone,

It's Technique Tuesday!

Today we will be talking about Altered Art.  It is exactly that.  Art that is Altered.

Altered Art . . . is altering or combining Existing works of art to produce New pieces of art.
It is also . . . the alteration of everyday objects into decorative pieces of art
as well as . . . Recycling & giving new life to common items Not associated with art turning them into creative works of art.

At the last Mixed Media Meeting at Treasured Memories, we were given 16 wooden blocks to create with.  To the meeting I brought a discarded pre-painted marbled canvas, some saved pieces from a broken project (an altered yardstick that I picked up at an antique store & a tiny broken wooden train set), a photo of 2 old ladies waiting for a train in Paris, & some old Graphic 45 papers.  With some Matt Gel Medium, Fabri-tac, & various watch parts I created my own Altered Art with wooden blocks & recycled items.

Below is the finished work of art.

I started off by cutting a wood grain piece of paper into vertical lengths, staggering them as I glued them to the canvas with matt gel medium.

Next I mended the yardstick with Fabri-tac & glued on some train images found in Daryl's Ephemera Cabinet at Treasured Memories & glued the yardstick to the canvas with Fabri-tac (drying time is approximately 10 minutes & heavy metal objects are still stuck to my art hanging on my walls 12 years later).  I cut the papers to fit the exposed sides of the wooden blocks & adhered the papers to the blocks with gel medium.  The blocks were then glued to the canvas with Fabri-tac.  After the broken wooden train received some TLC it too was attached to the blocks & canvas with Fabri-tac.

The photograph of a vintage camera from an old Graphic 45 Communique paper line was attached with gel medium.  My BFF Roxane (a.k.a. The Clock Lady) gave me these fantastic clock parts & springs seen below.  OMG they are amazing!  (These were attached with E-6000 only because I left it at the store overnight to dry, otherwise I would have used Fabri-tac because I do not have the patience to wait many hours for glue to dry - my character flaw.)

The recycled watch face, gears, clock hands & watch spring (can you see it hanging off the clock key?) are amazing on this project.  I love the old paper photo frame holding the photo of the 2 old ladies.  (I laughed out loud when I saw this photo because I saw it as Roxane & I years from now in Paris taking a break from wandering through the many magnificent antique markets.  I'm the cranky one on the right in the fur - too funny!)  I like gluing metal pen nibs onto pen nib images to add dimension.

I had some extra Foil Roses left over from a previous Technique Tuesday post (March 19, 2013) which also looks amazing under the photo.  Other recycled wooden game pieces were also glued to the canvas with Fabri-tac.

Here is a view of the wooden blocks stacked on the canvas as well as a leftover gear brad & train car.

Here is a closer look at that watch spring hanging off the clock key,

here is a closer look at the foil roses,

& here is a closer look at that pen nib & clock key.

I love how this Altered Art piece turned out!

The next time you are at the store, stop by & check out the various wooden blocks & other unique items that can be turned into your own Altered works of Art.

Have fun creating!